D & J Ranch

A 1st class facility with great personnel. The have wonderful facilities and are caring stewards of the animals in their care. Great location as well.

Let me first start with the good; the property is beautiful and they have a nice big outdoor. That was the only thing I liked about this place. They fed well and the stalls are clean so I guess that's a plus too. What I didn't like: well to start they charge you for EVERYTHING! I have been at multiple barns all over the area and D&J has the most ridiculous policies. $10 dollars per lesson with your trainer but they don't offer any themselves. You have to pay monthly for a light to be hung in the winter and blanketing and you have to pay them for a box fan in the summer. Most every barn provides the first box fan but if it breaks then you buy the new one. Also they hang the fans so high you can't even feel them. My mare never sweats but she was drenched in her stall. Second: I came out one day to ride and was about to put her saddle pad on and she flipped. She pulled back so hard on the hitching post she almost pulled it out of the ground. My mare is a seasoned show horse so she's way used to getting her blanket thrown on. I have never seen so much terror in a horses eyes. I brushed it off as a fluke but it happened 3 weeks in a row. I had to work with her 2 weeks after that to desensitize her again. I still can't tie her up and it happened out of no where and I can only assume abuse. Third: I asked for night turn out as my mare is a sooty buckskin and I didn't want her to bleach out and she gets a real burned nose. At the time I asked it was in April and they said they would start in a week. Well a week rolls by and they haven't started but I saw on their white board they had written "Night Turnout 5/1" and a list of horses names including mine so I let it go. June rolls around and the end of June I notice she's starting to loose her color. But every Wednesday when I came to ride she was in her stall so I assumed she was on night turn out and was a little bleached cause obviously she would be turned out around 6 when the sun is still off and I shrugged it off. July is when I found out the truth. They were turning her out in the day. Their "turnout" is a round pen with no shade or shelter. I went out for a surprise visit (not on a Wednesday like usual) and she was COMPLETELY DRENCHED in sweat. I confronted them and they said "oh we don't do night turnout". I have several witnessed to the condition she was in. She was doing nothing but standing in this hot pen and she was breathing like I'd ridden her hard for over an hour. All and all I don't recommend this place for anyone's horses but especially high maintenance ones.